The Equestrian Federation wants to ban the controversial training method of touching horses at the jump. This was decided by the FN Presidium and thus follows the unanimous recommendation of the Training Methods Commission.
“The FN Presidium will now apply to the FN Sports Advisory Board to include a ban on touching at the jump during training in the tournament sports rules and regulations for performance testing (LPO),” said a statement on Thursday.
The practice of so-called touching is controversial. The FN guidelines have so far stated that touching is “professional sensitization of the horse by specifically touching the horse’s legs during the jump”. The poles must be a smooth log – no more than three meters long and no heavier than two kilos. Touching may only be used by experienced horse professionals.
A few weeks ago, a contribution to the “RTL Extra” program caused a stir. In it, the four-time Olympic champion Ludger Beerbaum was accused of using the forbidden parallel bars training method on his show jumpers. Beerbaum had vehemently defended himself against the allegations and stressed that touching would be allowed.
It is not the task of the commission to legally evaluate the images shown in the RTL report and to pronounce regulatory measures, it said in the message, the FN Disciplinary Commission is responsible for this. They continue to check whether the images show that the performance test regulations have been violated and will not comment on the ongoing investigations.